George Rodriguez, born in Laredo, and raised in San Antonio, attended and graduated from BYU in 1976. In 1981, he went to work in D.C. and worked in various capacities at the Justice Department during the Reagan Administration. He also worked with the White House Office of Public Liaison. He is now retired and continues to speak and write to further conservative policies and ideas.

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A Tea Party Victory, Not a Loss

We Tea Party supporters are being called “terrorists” while we are being blamed by liberals for the downgrading of America’s credit rating. At the same time, many Tea Party supporters are feeling low because they feel we “lost” the fight against raising the federal debt ceiling. However, before Tea Party supporters get too discouraged, we should look at where we started and where we are today. Just two years ago, a Tea Party supported candidate had no chance to win; however, 2010 brought us major success across the nation. Today, we have focused and framed the national political debate.

First, the Tea Party sent a wake-up call to the nation about the peril of routinely overspending and raising the debt ceiling. Second, we have focused attention on the Balanced Budget Amendment, again. Third, we have shown our leaders in Washington, DC that we will not blindly follow policies we do not support. Fourth, we are standing on principle (not party) and insisting our demands be taken seriously. Fifth and finally, we hate to say “we told you so” but it is hard not to say it in light of nation’s credit rating downgrade caused because Congress did not do enough to address the debt issue.

The culmination of the debate was an eleventh-hour compromise which honored many of our concerns and forced the President and Senate to retreat on some of their liberal demands. Many in the press are crediting the Tea Party for holding the line. The left hates us even more for the power we have shown, while the right believes we need to push further. So why should Tea Party supporters bemoan this as “loss”? We need to take credit for a success but realize that it didn’t go far enough. We need to recognize that we can only do so much with one house of Congress.

We also should not pick a fight with our friends by implying that they have betrayed us on this one issue (albeit a very big and important one) by voting to raise the debt ceiling. There will always be people on all sides who feel extreme passion on any issue, and passion usually overrides reason. We must not be discouraged or blind with anger but rather recommit to vote out the people who support more taxes and more government spending. Big government is the problem, and we need to starve it to shrink it.

In short, we need to work on the 2012 elections by educating and informing people and then getting them to the polls. The Tea Party is not going to go away. We are going to keep demanding that government live within its means at the national, state, county and local levels.

George Rodriguez is President of the San Antonio Tea Party and a Fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.